ALABAMA – A new Alabama law, signed this week by Governor Kay Ivey, will allow wine to be shipped directly to your door, but only from certain places.
At Morgan Creek Winery in Harpersville, Charles Brammer has been able to ship wine to families in more than 30 states.
But when an Alabama family asked, he’s had to say no.
“People were in disbelief, you can ship to all these other states but you can’t ship within your own state,” he said. “It was really tough to explain. I’m glad we got that worked out and we don’t have to try to explain that anymore.”
A new law will make shipments in state legal from wine manufacturers with a license from the ABC Board.
“It’ll definitely help,” said Brammer. “That’s the way everything’s going now, with amazon and especially after the coronavirus. People are doing a lot more online and wants stuff shipped to them.”
The new law also has a safety component written into it.
“The shippers dropping the wine off at a consumer’s home must confirm the person who ordered the wine is of age and they will do that through ID check,” said Daniel Dye, spokesman for the ABC Board. “And they will make sure the name on the ID matches the name on the shipping label.”
Along with Alabama’s 25 wineries, wineries from out of state will also be able to ship to Alabama with a license from the ABC board.
Rep. Terri Collins (R- Decatur) spent years trying to get her bill passed.
“It’s been interesting to watch a bill that’s been so popular by all the people and even the legislators, but was so hard fought with the different lobbyist groups,” Collins said.
What about popular wine of the month clubs? Shipments can only come from wine manufacturers.
“That was one of the compromises we worked through but I believe we still can participate in some of the wine of the months, especially from some of those individual wineries but not from a big retailer,” Collins said.
The new law takes effect August first.
There is a limit to how much wine you can order. You can order up to 12, nine-liter cases of wine per year from a winery.
